From the Director

On March 10-12, 2009, The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) and the Department of State hosted 80 Designated School Officials (DSOs) and Responsible Officials (ROs) from across the country for the second SEVIS II Stakeholder Workshop which was held at the National Conference Center in Belmont, Virginia.

By all accounts this was an incredibly successful working conference. During that week, participants provided candid feedback on the development of SEVIS II. Participants told us what worked and gave us robust evaluations on the pending design and implementation. During this conference, there were several breakout sessions to address specific issues facing academic and program sponsors. Both the F&M and J sponsor programs as well as Batch providers were given separate but equal levels of attention for the specialized issues pertinent to their domains.

As SEVP prepares for the launch of SEVIS II, so much of the program and system&rsquo;s success is directly tied to the objective assessments we receive from DSOs and ROs &ndash; making their feedback an invaluable part of the process.

SEVP created a full transcript of this event, recording every written question and comment. Each was catalogued and will be given a proper response and acknowledgement in the coming weeks. Look for updates on our website; and, stay tuned for details about an upcoming Batch conference to discuss how the Batch process will be handled in a SEVIS II environment.

This event gave SEVP an outstanding opportunity to hear from our constituents. It was time well spent for me and my staff as your input is going to significantly impact our next steps as we refine SEVIS so that it works as seamlessly as possible with your institutions.

Lou Farrell, Director

Policy Update

A recent report produced by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that many foreign students are starting to find their job prospects here in United States dwindle after graduation. This, in large part, is due to the difficult economic climate that&rsquo;s being experienced by most American companies, stricter measures placed on H-1B visas and the fear that jobs given to foreign workers could produce a political and public relations backlash for these companies.

By all accounts this was an incredibly successful working conference. During that week, participants provided candid feedback on the development of SEVIS II. Participants told us what worked and gave us robust evaluations on the pending design and implementation. During this conference, there were several breakout sessions to address specific issues facing academic and program sponsors. Both the F&M and J sponsor programs as well as Batch providers were given separate but equal levels of attention for the specialized issues pertinent to their domains.

But it&rsquo;s not just the companies who are changing their attitudes. Reporting on the study&rsquo;s findings, the Chronicle of Higher Education said, &ldquo;in the 1980s and 1990s, most foreign students thought the United States offered the best job opportunities. But the latest survey found that 52 percent of the Chinese students, 32 percent of the Indian respondents and 26 percent of the European students now believe that better opportunities await them in their home countries.&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s happening on your campus? Have you started to detect a similar sentiment among your international student population? If so, what could this mean for higher education and the U.S. economy in general if we start to lose out on tapping into this highly-educated talent pool?

SEVIS II Update

SEVIS II will be deployed in two phases with the first deployment occurring in October of this year and the second deployment occurring in March of 2010. The purpose of the two-phased deployment is to facilitate the migration of data from SEVIS to SEVIS II during the interim period.

During this migration period, students and exchange visitors will be asked to verify the data in their migrated SEVIS II record. If there is inaccurate data, they will be provided with instructions on how to correct it. The data will be corrected in SEVIS, and re-migrated to SEVIS II. SEVIS II will also pair records that belong to the same individual. Students will be asked to validate whether the records being paired do, in fact, belong to them. They will also have the opportunity to identify records that belong to them that the system may not have identified as theirs. There are four planned migrations during this period between deployments to ensure that all corrections are made and their successful migration is validated.

Also during this migration period, school officials will establish their own accounts as well and will be asked to provide additional information for their I-17 relative to SEVIS II. Most significantly, schools will be asked to input academic calendars and provide course of study or degree plans information based on Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Codes. The new I-17 will also require information regarding student enrollment, tuition, staffing, accreditation, and licensing. None of the information added to the new I-17 will require adjudication, although the SEVP School Certification Branch will review it. Please note that the SEVIS II DS-3036 requires no additional data, so all that will be required from sponsor officials is validation of the SEVIS II data and correction if necessary.

SEVIS II will provide the unique identifier component to students in the system-- also known as the Immigration Identification Number (IIN). The IIN promises to be one of the main features of SEVIS II allowing for the creation of &ldquo;one person-one record&rdquo; accounts. This, in return, will help ensure that data is accurately entered. Access to this consistent information in the visa and DHS databases will greatly enhance the ability to properly match records.

Mission Support Branch (MSB)

PassportsPlease do not send your passports to the Student and Exchange Visitor office when submitting your I-515A documentation. Passports that are sent to this office will be returned immediately via FedEx to the student&rsquo;s Educational Institution&rsquo;s Designated School Official address listed in SEVIS at the expense of the student. We have recently received a large number of passports and to ensure that this important document is not lost in the mail, we must send the document through an express mail that is tracked. SEVP is asking the Designated School Officials and Responsible officers to assist with getting the word out to the academic and exchange visitor program community so that we can stop this practice and thereby reduce further complications with student and exchange visitors that intend to travel. SEVP appreciates your cooperation with this request.

Minimizing Delays when Traveling Things that can be done to lower the risk of delays during entry to the U.S. are:

Notify your Designated School Official or Responsible Officer that you plan to travel and to verify that your SEVIS record is current and accurate.

Have the following documents &ldquo;in-hand&rdquo; for review when passing through U.S. Customs and Border Protection:

Students - please carry the following documents:

Passport with Visa

Current I-20 with DSO&rsquo;s signature

Exchange Visitors - please carry the following documents:

Passport w/Visa

Current DS-2019 with RO&rsquo;s signature

New SEVP Zip Code The New SEVP Zip Code is 20536. This zip code is the official zip code that should be used for all correspondence with this office. Please make the correctional update to your contact list.

School Certification Branch (SCB)

SCB has been actively advising school officials at conferences and in broadcast messages to update their I-17 petitions. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of I-17 petitions received each month. Below are SEVP&rsquo;s I-17 receipt statistics for the past year:

Month

Number of I-17Petitions Received

Year 2008

March

138

April

166

May

178

June

52

July

62

August

82

September

139

October

251

November

123

December

164

Year 2009

January

182

February

209

March (as of the 24th)

145

SEVP Response Center (SRC)

The SEVP Response Center began operations in January. The SRC is one of SEVP&rsquo;s ongoing efforts to expand service to our many stakeholders. The Center is staffed by three highly trained SEVP employees who are knowledgeable in a variety of issues related to the F and M visa categories, including, but not limited to:

Initial Certification

Recertification

Updates

Optional Practical Training (OPT)

SEVIS

Policy

The SRC is staffed to answer many of your questions Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.

The dedicated number for the SRC is (703) 603-3400.

We are confident you will find the SRC to be an improvement to current handling of stakeholder queries and we look forward to receiving your feedback regarding this new service.

SEVIS by the Numbers

Total Approved School............................................9,609

Total Exchange Visitor Programs.............................1,434

Total Active Students and Exchange Visitors........................901,680

Total Dependents of Students and Exchange Visitors........................144,788

Total.........................................1,027,511

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